• Bio
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  • Awards & Commendations
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Sali A. Rakower is a Partner of Rakower Law.  Her areas of practice include complex commercial litigation, litigation involving foreign sovereigns and their state-owned subsidiaries, and litigation involving issues of international private and public law. Sali has appeared before U.S. federal and state courts, and courts in France and Switzerland.  Sali also serves as the Firm’s General Counsel.

  • Representation of hedge fund in $1 billion derivative action arising from alleged scheme to divert corporate assets from New York Stock Exchange-traded Chinese company for benefit of corporate insiders;
  • Representation of U.S. and foreign multinational corporations in matters involving the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), including internal investigations of potential violations of the FCPA, FCPA compliance programs and risk audits and assessments, and investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.  Ms. Rakower led audit teams composed of other attorneys, forensic accountants and former FBI investigators around the world on compliance reviews and internal investigations for U.S. and multinational corporations;
  • Representation of major French institutions in a series of civil, regulatory and criminal proceedings involving highly complicated cross-border business transactions, including representing Credit Lyonnais and Consortium de Realisation in a multibillion-dollar civil lawsuit stemming from the acquisition of high-yield securities of a failed California insurance company;
  • Representation of the governments of Jordan and Iraq in various legal matters, including counseling the Iraqi government and conducting extensive research and analysis on issues relating to the UN Oil-for-Food scandal.

In 2002, Sali served in the Prosecutor’s Office of the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Tanzania, where she assisted in the prosecution of former Rwandan military leaders for their role in the 1994 genocide.  Sali conducted interviews in Rwanda of both witnesses and former perpetrators of crimes and helped gather and prepare evidence for use at trial.

Sali served as the inaugural Director of the West Point Center for the Rule of Law from 2008-2009. From 2009-2020, she served as Senior Fellow of the Center.

Sali was a College Scholar at Cornell University and obtained her B.A. from the college in 1994. In 1999, she received her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where she served as the Executive Editor of the Virginia Journal of International Law.

  • B.A., Cornell University (College Scholar)
  • J.D., University of Virginia (Executive Editor, the Virginia Journal of International Law)
  • New York
  • U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
  • U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
  • Ms. Rakower was honored by Human Rights First for her pro bono representation of Iraqi translators who worked for US troops during the war in Iraq.
  • “Foreign Governments Are Not Immune from New York City’s Assertion of Tax Liens Against Their Diplomatic Property,” New York State Bar Association Commercial and Federal Litigation Section Newsletter, Winter 2007.
  • Panelist, Understanding the Syrian Refugee Crisis, CARE, New York City, 2015.
  • Lecturer, “Honor” Killings and Gender Justice, New York University, 2013.
  • Panelist, Rights of Women in the Islamic World Following the “Arab Spring”, New York City Bar Association, 2013.
  • Panelist, Islam in the United States, West Point Center for the Rule of Law, 2012.
  • Panelist, Women in Islam, West Point Center for the Rule of Law, 2011.
  • Panelist, The Status of Women in the Middle East in Light of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, New York City Bar Association, 2010.
  • Lecturer, International Humanitarian Law, Fordham Law School, 2009.
  • Lecturer, Culture and Politics of Iraq, West Point Military Academy, 2007.
  • Lecturer, The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, West Point Military Academy, 2007.
  • Lecturer, The Role of International Criminal Tribunals, West Point Military Academy, 2007.
  • Lecturer, International Criminal Law and the Role of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Albany Law School, 2005.
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